We passed an X-yacht612,who was ahead of us the whole
race.We sail towards Martinique to fetch PigeonIsland(a
rock behind which lies the finish line)

as the wind still won’t allow us to sail
straight.As we approach the gybe point,the wind veers in the Martinique
passage by 35 degrees!We sail closer to

PigeonIsland
but need to go another 6 miles to fetch it.This has benefited the X-yacht and
as we gybe ,we take the spi down not knowing they are in the money.

As we sail closer, we realize they are ahead,and we
no longer can hoist the spi ,as we are too close and it takes time to do the manoeuvre.We
chase like crazy but they cross the line one and a half minutes ahead of us.Imagine,three
boat lengths away after 3300 miles of sailing!It later transpires that they
used the engine for

several hours during the course of the race.Boat for
boat we crossed the line ninth at 03:19 Sunday 4th December.Three of
the boats ahead declared use of engine.

The corrected time results will come out days
later,when more boats finish.We should do well,because as of later today the
wind will go light and the boats will take ages to finish.

This has been an excellent adventure,full of laughs
and camaraderie.The wind blew constantly albeit from an angle that
required continuous gybing and brought us home safely.

If,there is always an if,we hadn’t torn the spi
one day after the start we would have probably finished on Friday evening.Still
our performance was good and,let us not forget,WE